Broken Until You

Chapter 23 - A Desire to Protect Her

Ryder

It is a hot day today so my best friend, Brandon, suggested that we should go shoot some hoops at the park.

We've been playing basketball at the park for three hours so far, but I just can't seem to get my mind off of one thing:

Autumn.

I thought basketball would help take my mind off her but it's not helping at all. Instead, I keep missing the ball if Brandon throws it to me or I miss the hoop everytime I try to take a shot.

"Man, it's fun beating you when your heads in the game but when you're barely making shots or trying, it sucks beating you." Brandon said after I attempted to shoot a free throw and missed...again.

I sighed. "I'm sorry, dude. I thought basketball would help take my mind off of..."

Intrigued, Brandon's right eyebrow lifted. "Take your mind of off what?"

My lips stayed shut.

Since we just worked out, Brandon was all sweaty but that didn't stop him from wrapping his arm around my neck. "Come on you can tell your good ol' friend."

I cringed at the feeling of his sweaty arm. "Ew stop Brandon. You're all sweaty!"

His arm tightened around my neck, capturing me in a neck-lock. "If you don't tell me I'm not letting go."

I gave in because the odor of his body smelled really gross. "Fine! Let me go!"

Letting go, Brandon walked over to the nearest bench and sat down. He patted the seat next to him, "sit and tell me what's on your mind."

I sat down next to him. Sighing, I raked my hand through my hair. Where do I even begin? Since I'm a boy, I know that we boys don't like sharing our inner thoughts, feelings, or secrets to anyone but I need to tell someone and I trust Brandon a lot.

"Well...it's about this girl." I began awkwardly.

"We are partners for the big project thing in English. When we were assigned to be partners, I thought I would only have to speak to her in English and to be honest I didn't want anything to do with her. We would go to the shelter once a week and do our own essays is what I thought was going to happen. Turns out, I was wrong."

"I hated her in the beginning for no reason but throughout the weeks, she's become a friend. I like spending time with her."

"Ok. So what's the problem then?" Brandon asked.

"Well...um...something happend Halloween night. I was at home and I got a call from her. She asked me to pick her up and I couldn't understand why she would want me, of all people, to go and get her from some party."

"When I picked her up, I could tell automatically that she was drunk. She looked terrified– traumatized actually. I was debating wether or not to ask what was wrong because I knew her sober self wouldn't say anything."

"But then she told me she was afraid of parties and I just had to ask why, and what she told me made me..." I trailed off, not knowing how to describe how I felt that night.

"Can you say what happened to her?" he asked me when I paused.

"Look, you're my homie and all but I can't." I told him with sincere apology. "Autumn would never want me to tell anyone and I have to respect that."

Brandon nodded, "ok. I understand."

Inhaling a deep breath, I continued. "The reason why she was afraid of parties made me feel pain in my heart. When I heard how sad she sounded, my heart started to ache and long to hold her in my arms and tell her that everything was going to be okay."